Watch Live: Officials give update on Surfside, Florida condo building collapse
CBSN
Officials in Surfside, Florida, will offer an update Friday on the condo building that collapsed last week. Officials have so far confirmed 18 deaths and more than 140 people are still unaccounted for, as more information comes about what led to the deadly tragedy.
Search and rescue efforts resumed Thursday evening after they were called off over fears that what's left of the building could cave in. Search crews made the decision to suspend the search early Thursday morning after discovering part of the building had shifted as much as a foot. Operations were suspended for more than 15 hours, but resumed "after the recommendation of structural engineers who inspected the remaining structure," according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.